How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?
None! They have a machine that can do that now!
Joe Morello, no contest.
A-ni-mal! A-ni-mal!
Definitely Keith Moon for rock drummer. No one really comes close.
Buddy Rich for jazz.
Neil Peart. I saw him live last spring. The man is a machine.
Mitch Mitchell
Jack DeJohnette
Tony Williams
Art Blakey
Elvin Jones
Max Roach
John Marshall
Jon Christensen
B.J. Wilson
Mitch Mitchell
Ginger Baker
Barriemore Barlow
Christian Vander
Keith Moon
John French
Antonio Sanchez.
One of my favourite drummers is George Jinda, who was with Chieli Munucci in Special EFX.
I revised the title, and since I can add some more, I’ll throw in the following:
Butch Trucks + Jaimoe
Yonrico Scott
Matt Cameron
Phil Selway
Mitch Mitchell
Some not mentioned enough who deserve to be, IMO. I can enjoy their songs even when “tuning” my brain in to listen only to the drums portion (what I feel is the mark of a great drum performance).
Nick Mason (Pink Floyd)
Gina Schock (The Go Gos)
Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth)
Barriemore Barlow (Jethro Tull)
What? No Mickey Hart?
Krupa Forever.
Cozy Cole
Question: What do you call someone who hangs around musicians?
Answer: A drummer.
Ah, yes, I forgot Mitch Mitchell. I should also add that I’m particularly fond of Janet Weiss’s (Sleater-Kinney and Quasi) drum stylings.
trilok gurtu
My favorite is Jimmy Chamberlain.
Terry Bozzio
Phil Collins (not recently, mind you)
Neil Peart
Ian Paice (underrated)
Bill Ward (also underrated)
Continuing with the drummer jokes:
Q: How do you get a drummer off your porch?
A: You pay for the pizza.
I’m sure there are technically better, but I’m going to totally date myself and prove what a nerd I am and say Karen Carpenter is my favorite drummer.
I may be hard to believe, perhaps, but when he drummed as part of Brand X (one of the top five fusion bands ever), I thought Phil Collins was the finest drummer in the world.
Having been a pretty good drummer myself, I was stunned by his prodigious skills in that domain. After hearing him, I was aghast at how much work I’d need to do to come anywhere close to his abilities.
Brand X’s rhythms were often enormously complex, and they could never have managed to pull them off without Collins’ astonishing gifts. His virtuoso performances – especially on Unorthodox Behaviour – place him at or near the top of my personal pantheon.
I was really impressed with Brian Blade (jazz drummer). When Bill Frisell (amazing jazz guitarist) got into his Americana period, I was part of the audience at his Tractor Tavern gig for the “Good Dog, Happy Man” album. The audience was essentially the usual suspects in the Seattle indie rock scene, so hardly anybody knew who the drummer was…by the end of the night, he got more applause than Frisell did.